Students create television show 'Adventerous Detectivous' for MHTV

Taylor Ballek/ Staff Photographer
The cast of Adventures Detectivous pose for the opening shot Sunday afternoon in Brooks greenhouse, for the next episode in their T.V. show that two of the cast members created.

A passion for film and television wasn't enough for film buffs Pat Hoban and Miles Johnson.

Starting last spring, "Adventerous Detectivous," a Moore Hall TV-aired comedy show was born from the minds of broadcast majors of Hoban, from Pinckney, and Johnson, from Grand Rapids.

"We built this from the ground up," show co-creator and senior Hoban said.

Hoban met fellow silver-screen connoisseur and eventual show co-creator Johnson at an After Hours Improv meeting, a registered student organization, and wanted to work together.

"I thought Miles would be someone good to work with," Hoban said.

They set to work on the television show creating scripts, casting actors, finding set locations and developing a real-life world for the vision in their heads.

"Getting a script together and a good idea is the easiest part of it," Hoban said.

Hoban directs, produces and edits the show while Johnson writes the scripts for each episode and is the show's lead actor.

The show sees documentarian Roger Morris capture the ups and downs of former child television star turned "Adventerous Detectivous" crime novel writer Jeremiah Jones as he attempts to successfully re-launch his detective business of the same name. The six-episode series airs in Mount Pleasant on channel 97 and on campus on channel 34.

"As much as the show is about a mystery-solving detective, it's just as much a show about a documentary that falls apart," Johnson said.

Set in the fictional town of Mount Everett amid various fictional locales including Middle of Michigan Community College, the show's characters are similar to their creators and their friends who play them.

Daniel Jackson, a Detroit senior, plays the nice, yet self-centered character Danny whom Jackson describes as a very exaggerated version of himself.

"He's pretty much ambitious," Jackson said. "He wants to take over the show eventually. He's like an intern but he wants the role of the director."

Jackson said performing on the show is his first time acting on camera.

He immersed himself in every aspect of the show's production, having helped write the show's third episode and creating what was supposed to be a one-off joke into a running gag throughout the series.

"There's a rock in the second episode," he said. "It was supposed to be a small part in one small scene. Off-camera, I kind of fell in love with the rock and now it's an ongoing thing on-screen."

Before the episodes are shot, actors and writers read the scripts aloud at a table reading.

"To take notes and find things to change," he said. "You really want to hear how the actors deliver their lines."

The group, with the addition of a few more friends, shot the show almost entirely on weekends. After shooting, Hoban works with editors to create each episode's final edit.

"We shoot two to four or maybe five hours (a day)," Hoban said. "I'll do the final edit. I clean up stuff they might have missed."

The hard work of putting together the show, and even its content, has its rewards.

"It's a comedy, so we make ourselves laugh while we're doing it," he said.

Beyond the writing, shooting, acting and every other aspect which goes along with the show, Hoban and Johnson said they are looking to move onto other things after the show's end.

Johnson said the show's constant writing processes will help him in the future, as his goal is to become a writer and director with complete control over his own projects.

"Of all the areas I can go into, I imagine going into screenwriting or television writing," he said.

Hoban said working on a television show now, will only help him with his goal of doing television production as a career.

"I want to do this for the rest of my life, so getting asked to do it now is just a huge 'yes please," he said.